the twisted yarn

Knitting, crochet, running, and silliness.

Outdoors

by 24 Comments

Yikes, I did NOT intend to go quiet on you for so long, but there’s scarcely even been time to knit/crochet! What with the twinnage, and redeveloping the garden, and lots of new patients to assess at work, and a stonking big yarn-related writing commission, and marathon training, and… and… and…

I’m sure you get the gist.

Meanwhile, here are some bluebells at Badbury Hill that we saw the other day.

Talking of marathon prep, it turns out that there’s more to the training than just eating all the pasta, so I’ve been upping my running… and eating all the pasta. If anyone looks at me funny, I just mutter “carb loading” and carry on munching. The fact that I’m also choc-loading and wine-loading is entirely beside the point. Fortunately, there are some lovely tracks to be discovered in south Oxfordshire, well away from any roads:-

The other day, I ran 17 fairly hilly miles (that’s 27km) in the baking noon-day sun. I had no particular route pre-planned, so I just lolloped along, making it up as I went, and darting down promising-looking footpaths.

This footpath looked particularly promising, but steep.

There’s something wonderful about the freedom of thinking, “See that hill over there? Maybe I’ll run to that, next.” And when you’re running 17 miles, you can scamper across a fair ol’ chunk of the county before you have to start paying attention to where you are and how you might find your way home.

I passed a life-size bronze model of a rhino (its rear circled here in red – sorry for lack of better photographic evidence, but I was quite tired and wobbly by this point)…

…and I nearly tripped over an inattentive but very real rabbit. I was crashed into by a speeding bike (yeah thanks mate – no don’t worry, I’m fine), and I made friends with an orange-tip butterfly that followed along beside me for a truly surprising distance beside a nuclear research facility. (Yeah, I run no faster than an insect with a wingspan of one inch. Thanks for the reminder.)

And there was me thinking it was just a natural healthy glow from having run so far…

All in all, a pretty ordinary run, albeit one that took exactly three hours to complete.

It’s been good to get outdoors, and not just for running. The twinnage, the twisted seniors (my parents), and I went to inspect some local bluebells at Badbury Hill, and how beautiful was the sight?

There was wild garlic, too.

And ferns.

I wish I could show you the twinnage as they bounded along, each holding a stick, and announcing each new discovery of a bird or an insect. But they might reach adulthood and sue me for spamming the internet with their sweet faces and frankly, I can’t afford the legal fees. So you’ll just have to put up with another bluebell instead, because bluebells rarely sue.

May is – in my arrogant opinion – about as perfect as months  get. It’s the ideal month for being outdoors. But I do have knitting to show you, I really do. There are finished-yarny-object posts coming next, and they’re colourful. I’ve been knitting when I can, at the twinnage’s music group:-

And at the twinnage’s swimming lesson:-

So my next few posts will be yarn-related. But in the meantime, one of the twinnage came over to where I was writing in my usual notebook, and asked what I was doing. “Just writing a blog post,” I said, at which point he decided that he wanted to help. Here’s his contribution. He loves horses more than almost anything else in the world, and if he had a blog, this is what it would be about:-

Definitely a future blogger, don’t you think?

 

Comments

  1. So how’d he find out the names of the horses? I have a guilty confession, when I was a little girl (a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away) there was a farm with horses and cows, that I could reach the back fence of thru the woods. I used to bring the horses, apples, carrots etc and catch them and ride them bare back… I don’t think the farmer would have liked it (nor would my Mom) but neither of them ever found out. Don’t let your son read this, he might get bad ideas from it.

    Reply

  4. gorgeous pics of bluebells … i was raised in england but now live in US … we have lupines here but no bluebells and i do miss them.

    Reply

  5. We left England many years ago but I always think of the bluebells in the woods in the month of May, thank you so much for the lovely pictures, so many memories to cherish!!

    Reply

  6. Aw, the Twisted one is back!! Sounds like you’ve been hugely busy, I’ve no idea how you fit it all in, you’re a champion time-juggler. Anyway, just to say that I’m away on a work trip in Montreal, far, far away from my native Sheffield, and even though it sounds fabulous I’m quite lonely so it was extra-great to see your post pop up in my email. Thanks for the amazing photos of English loveliness, I’m cheering you on with your running, and your boy’s horse post is AWESOME!! Love and appreciation from A Regular Reader XXX

    Reply

  7. Love the photos. Beautiful ! I laughed when you said you fell over a bunny…. my mad runner daughter, also ran at weekend. Camped out overnight, and had trouble with wombats a plenty. They invaded the campsite, and tried to knock over their portable food container,nipped one of the runners when he intervened, and generally made a nuisance of themselves.
    Her photos are less picturesque. Enjoy those bluebell, they are simply stunning. Good luck with the knitting and running . Love from “down under”. Faye

    Reply

  9. Splendid! 27 km, wow, you’re doing well. And for that nuke facility, I don’t think we’re made for atomic speed. Please don’t put your kids online. I hate it when others do. We had a case of cyber bullying because of (strange?) birth pics going around school of a 15 year old. And all other weirdo’s online using your pics. Spoil us with lots of knitting with feet pics instead ;>P

    Reply

  10. Well done twin. I would very much like to see a photo of the horses.
    Love the llok of all that knitting. I think the first week of May is as near perfect as it gets and when you were lollaping at butterfly pace I doing some garden chair testing in the garden!

    Reply

  11. Enjoyed reading this post, as I have done on numerous occasions without letting you know it. Thank you for a spot of peaceful beauty to start my day, feeling wistful.

    Reply

  12. My computer screensaver looks just like the blueberries at Badbury Hill. I always wondered where that photo was taken. Must have been there because I doubt there are few places on earth as beautiful as that… Yes, I too have done my share of knitting while waiting at sporting and other events. Kind of a nice feeling to be accomplishing two things at once – or maybe several since you are also taking pictures.

    Reply

  13. I can see the opportunity for the horsey twin to make some serious coin from mum writing the copy for her blog posts and freeing her up for larking about the countryside taking some seriously delicious photos. Your phone needs an award! Kudos on the training and the discipline to keep doing it. You don’t even have an “Earl” as the daily incentive to head out into the never-never wilderness and hurtle yourself around the countryside so you must be seriously self motivated. Awesome job on all counts including the parenting Ms T 🙂

    Reply

  16. I used to work in the local primary school and it had its own woodland attached. It was a carpet of blue in May with bluebells and I loved it. It was designated as ancient woodland so the council couldn’t pinch it to build on it either.

    Reply

  17. I admire your ambition; writing, running, knitting and family. You go girl! Thank you for sharing with us, I thoroughly enjoy your posts.

    Reply

Please do leave a comment - I love to read them.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: